{"id":39983,"date":"2026-05-18T16:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/39983\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:48:37","slug":"lack-of-housing-a-factor-in-irish-emigration-to-uk-says-catherine-connolly-on-first-visit-to-britain-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/39983\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Lack of housing\u2019 a factor in Irish emigration to UK, says Catherine Connolly on first visit to Britain \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Catherine Connolly<\/a> has kicked off her first official visit to Britain with a visit to the Irish Cultural Centre (ICC) in Hammersmith, London, in advance of an expected meeting with King Charles in Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

In only her second foreign trip since becoming President last November, she spent the morning meeting members of the local Irish community and advocates for the Irish language, as well as cheering on a rousing Riverdance-like performance by traditional Irish dancers and musicians.<\/p>\n

Connolly spoke of the need to \u201cembrace other cultures\u201d and made reference to Ireland\u2019s housing crisis<\/a> and its role in emigration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, modern-day immigration [to the UK] was driven by economic factors, with large numbers leaving Ireland for London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis occurred in waves and we know that from the 19th century and the 20th century, and unfortunately today as well, we have people leaving our shores for various reasons, but some of them for lack of housing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Led by London police outriders, the President arrived at the west London centre at about 10am. <\/p>\n

Connolly was accompanied by her husband Brian McEnery, the State\u2019s Ambassador to Britain, Martin Fraser, and his wife Deirdre Fraser. <\/p>\n

She was greeted by Peter Power-Hynes, the chairman of the ICC.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Catherine Connolly applauds a musical performance during her visit to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, west London. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Among the first local dignitaries she encountered just inside the door was Troy Gallagher, an Irish-born Islington councillor and a member of ICC\u2019s board. She asked him where he was from. Gallagher said he was originally from Letterkenny in Donegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, Donegal \u2013 Ireland\u2019s most beautiful county … after Galway,\u201d replied the President, laughing. She is a native of the City of Tribes. <\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Connolly was wearing a cream suit by Donegal-based designer Sarah Lorraine Gallagher.<\/p>\n

The President seemed poised and relaxed for the opening event of what is her most significant public outing as President so far.<\/p>\n

She joked at one stage that she couldn\u2019t see her speech because she defied her opticians by refusing to wear glasses when she needed them.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Catherine Connolly with musicians who performed during her visit to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, west London, on Monday. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Connolly initially worked the room, where the crowd included local Hammersmith MP Andy Slaughter as well as London-based Irish celebrities such as Dara \u00d3 Briain, who has an ambassadorial role at the ICC.<\/p>\n

She took time to talk to the staff of the centre, which is in the midst of an expansion negotiated by Power-Hynes, and expressed particular interest in one of the ICC\u2019s projects, a heritage trail of the Irish community in the local area.<\/p>\n

The President then gave her opening remarks in the ICC\u2019s performance space. She told the crowd that the \u201cIrish contribution to British society is as diverse as can be imagined\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is hardly a sector of the economy or an area of life that has not been touched by the Irish here in Britain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Departing from her scripted remarks, she also said the Irish should be proud to \u201cembrace other cultures and never be threatened\u201d by doing so.<\/p>\n

\"PresidentPresident Catherine Connolly with Irish dancers who performed during her visit to the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, west London, on Monday. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Her brief speech was followed by a music performance by the tutors of the ICC\u2019s traditional Irish music classes, including flautists and fiddle players.<\/p>\n

This was followed by a performance from what were effectively the stars of the show.<\/p>\n

The London-based Scoil Rince C\u00e9im \u00d3ir put on a show that included young Irish dancers who had just returned from the world championships, where they won a host of awards. <\/p>\n

This included 11-year-old world-title holder Fiadh Fitzgerald. The President seemed particularly delighted by the smallest dancer in the group, Amelia Morgan (6).<\/p>\n

Connolly led a standing ovation at the stirring finale of the high-octane show, which was greeted by the crowd as if it had been Riverdance.<\/p>\n

After disappearing upstairs to meet those partaking in Irish-language classes, Connolly left at about 11.30am in advance of further high-profile engagements in London this afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage gives us a powerful sense of home,\u201d she said before departing.<\/p>\n

Her trip to Britain takes place against the backdrop of speculation that the British king may soon be invited on an official trip to the Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Catherine Connolly has kicked off her first official visit to Britain with a visit to the Irish…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[20121,13,20285,6142,6688,2708,27],"class_list":["post-39983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-britain","tag-dara-o-briain","tag-emigration","tag-housing-crisis","tag-king-charles","tag-london"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116596605232211532","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}